Thursday, August 19, 2010

Comic Book Report: Checkmate Vol. 3: Fall of the Wall

I'm not really spoiling anything when I tell you that the "Wall" in the title refers to Amanda Waller, Checkmate's "White Queen." I mean, the cover image tells you that. And you know she'll be back. That gal always manages to land on her feet.

One of the major B-stories in this arc is the workplace romance between Mr. Terrific and Sasha Bordeaux, which, for my money, wasn't really necessary, but served as a nice counterpoint to the constant threats to life-death-reputation-career that these characters endure. Rucka knows how to torture his protagonists.

This volume ends with a standalone tale focusing on the Black Queen's Knight, Josephine Tautin, a.k.a. "Mademoiselle Marie;" and then there's a coda titled La Vie en Sang, and that alone may be worth the price of the book for some. Stories of heroic sacrifice always get me.